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News :: Miscellaneous |
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Bush Visits Portland; State of Emergency Declared |
Current rating: 0 |
by ML
(No verified email address) |
22 Aug 2002
Modified: 23 Aug 2002 |
From reports on Portland IMC:
http://portland.indymedia.org/ |
Thousands of Oregonians protesting the visit of pResident George W. Bush to Portland were met with riot cops and tear gas today. A state of emergency was declared by the police as the crowd grew to numbers that could not be controlled by the vast array of repressive machinery arrayed against the public. Babies in carriages were reported to have been pepper-sprayed, according to one dominant media news report. Reports indicate that the crowd did nothing to provoke the police before they attacked.
For complete coverage of this breaking story, visit Portland IMC: |
See also:
http://portland.indymedia.org/
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Rubber Bullets Fired At Citizens |
by ML
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
22 Aug 2002
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http://portland.indymedia.org:8081/front.php3?article_id=17241&group=webcast |
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PORTLAND DEMONSTRATION GETS NATIONAL COVERAGE!!! |
by IMC reporter
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
22 Aug 2002
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From: http://www.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=199572&group=webcast
Look at http://www.portland.indymedia.org
On its last half hour news report, MSNBC led with a story on the protests in the streets on Portland.
I must stress. THIS WAS THE LEADING STORY!!!
The protests in Portland appear to be a great success. Estimates run into the thousands. This public demonstration may be a harbinger of a great anti-war movement. People should make it impossible for Bush to appear in public, especially in any large city, to discourage him from his warmongering policies.
MSNBC text (transcribed from a video recording):
<
Here's what's happening right now.
Police are out in full force, trying to disperse thousands of protesters gathered outside President Bush's Portland hotel.
The demonstrators marching against the President's foreign policy, chanted,
DROP BUSH, NOT BOMBS!>>
At the bottom of the screen were the words,
PRESIDENTIAL PROTEST.
The video showed the line of conflict, between the protesters and demonstrators, who were youths, mostly male, some carrying protest signs (which were not photographed).
The camera action was not very professional. Half the video shows the back the back of protester wearing a gray T-shirt. Between the demonstrators, one can see the police pushing back some of the protesters with their batons.
One of the older demonstrators, with a gray beard, appears to be trying to calm both sides down, calling for restraint from both police and protesters.
Most of the police are white, though one or two blacks are shown. All of the protesters appear to be white males.
The police appear to be somewhat disconcerted, perhaps overwhelmed. I do not think they expected such a large number of demonstrators. Some of the police are looking from side to side, putting up their batons in front of themselves. While none of the demonstrators appear armed, they were moving close to the line of control, and challenging the police presence, not aggressively, but firmly asserting their right to be there, and perhaps closer to the hotel.
The police only seem to be about 15 feet in front of the hotel building, which is white and only two stories high. Or perhaps this some other building blocks away from the hotel. Protesters who were their can explain where this took place. There are a few short trees in front of the building.
Two of the police can be seen yelling at the protesters. The police are not dressed in the Robocop style, rather, they have black uniforms, baseball shaped caps, and no armor.
The police are perhaps being a bit careful, not only because MSNBC cameras are there, but because the protesters have cameras too. One protester with a black T shirt and knapsack and blue jeans and black baseball cap is carrying a small video cam. He is aiming it right at the police, as one officer comes out from the police line, and walks aggressively into the crowd of demonstrators.
The police line is only about two lines deep, and one man in a blue shirt-- he seems to be an older officer-- wanders in the back, appearing to give direction. He seems fairly calm, unlike most of the officers on the front line.
There is one woman in the picture-- I cannot tell whether she is a protester or not. She was with brownish blondish hair, wearing a bright purple dress, with dark sunglasses. I guess she is a protester, because she is wearing a back pack, which you can only see as you get close to the camera.
Reviewing the tape on slow motion, you can clearly see between two protesters, that one policeman comes out of the line and aggressively pushes one of the protesters back with his baton. This causes the crowd to heat up, and then calm down.
This of the protest was pretty short. Only ten seconds long, according to my video counter. I have reported a lot of detail here, because I can watch it over and over.
At least the news media is covering it, and as a leading story. That is something.
Go to this address for up to the minute news on this demo.
http://www.portland.indymedia.org
A postscript:
One of the sponsors of Ashleigh Banfield Show on MSNBC is Shell Oil. Their adds take great pains to show how beneficent Shell is.
Banfield is doing her <> show this week, leading up to the anniversary of 9-11. I have watched it once or twice, but it is too nauseating to endure. Just rah-rah stuff, and no coverage at all of people who oppose the war. Given that even according to official polls, more than one third of Americans oppose war in Iraq, this is pretty pitiful coverage.
Still, MSNBC appears at present the most of the news outlets. Donahue featured representatives of fire officers and police officers unions in New York asking for pay raises, and an Arab American Professor who was fired from his job, even though he has not even been indicted for any crime. A couple of nights ago, Donahue had Studs Terkel on, who spent an entire hour talking about labor and peace issues, denouncing Bush's foreign policy, and especially his moves against Iraq.
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First Hand account of Portland Protest |
by witness
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
23 Aug 2002
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Police Brutality
My account of what went down yesterday in downtown Portland (While the fat cats collected a million dollars for Sen. Gordon Smith (R).) $25,000 for a picture with Herr President
This was one of the most peaceful positive marches I have ever been apart of and the way shit went down and the way the media covered it is bullshit!!!!
The entire march from the north park blocks to the barricades was entirely peaceful, joyful even, people cheered us on for the most part and I only saw one or two people opposing the "parade". It was a crowd made up of every sort of person imaginable, young, old, hippies, straight laced white collar, children, the handicapped, and on and on. After we arrived at the pre designated police barricades everything was going great for a while. It was only when an order came down the police lines that the pre-designated barricades were too close to the hotel (apparently they could hear us inside) and the police were given orders to move the protesters back a block.
You must understand that this was a protest of at least a couple of thousand people and how exactly do you get several hundred people at a time to move a block away... Well the police decided to bring their cars into the most crowded area of the protest...when there was barely room for people to move about. This obviously created a little bit of a panic. In the mean time the cops at the barricade began to push forward with batons. This is when the pepper spray was unleashed. In all of this confusion a few people felt either threatened enough or close to being trampled so they jumped on the cop cars in the midst of all the protesters. The cops created the original boundaries, someone decided they werent satisfied with these barricades and then proceeded to forcefully move a crowd of several thousand by whatever means necessary. The cops made the first violent move and created the whole situation. If you want someone to blame its the cops not protecting our first amendment rights to free assembly!!! |
See also:
http://www.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=199693&group=webcast
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